Chino Hills residents Anna Cole and Kazumi make their way through the new Daiso store that offers shoppers a variety of household items for $1.50. The Chino Hills-based store hosted its grand opening on Saturday.

CHINO HILLS >> An hour after walking through the doors at the new Daiso, Kazumi Kha and her friend Anna Cole hadn’t yet made their way through half the store.

With shopping baskets in hand, the Chino Hills residents stopped to point at the four-pack of colorful plastic sauce bottles, priced at $1.50.

“We’re taking our time,” said Cole, 38.

“We haven’t even got to the cosmetics aisle,” said Kah, 36.

Offering shoppers more than 10,000 items to pick and choose from, the low-price Japanese retailer of household items opened its 14th Southern California store on Saturday in Chino Hills.

Some items were individually wrapped while others were neatly stacked with signs written in English, and some in Japanese and Chinese.

Holiday music in both English and Japanese periodically played over the speaker system as shoppers combed the store for deals, and possible stocking stuffers.

Diaso’s products, all imported from Japan, come in a variety of colors and patterns. Some items were $1, while others were higher, like a Santa Claus costume for $5.

The retail competitors are the 99 Cents Only Stores and Dollar Tree, but it’s Daiso’s quality and value that makes their products superior, said Jon Kim of J Marketing, who is in charge Diaso’s marketing.

“The Japanese have a good reputation for having high-quality items, and then you bring in the $1.50 value — it’s like Black Friday here every day,” Kim said.

Daiso is well-established in Japan with more than 3,000 stores.

Daiso Sangyo Corp. opened its first directly managed store in 1991 in the city of Takamatsu, Kagawa, Japan.

Daiso then took its business to Seattle in 2005. A year later, the company ventured to Northern California, opening 11 stores.

Daiso plans to open 15th Southern California store in West Los Angeles later this week.

The Chino Hills store — at 2971 Chino Ave., Unit B — is next to the popular Chinese supermarket Ranch 99 and a block from Taiwan-based chain 85 Degree Celsius Bakery Cafe.

“Our goal is to get into the mainstream market,” Kim said, “but right now we’re opening in places that are populated with Asian-Americans.”

Daiso carries standard items like sewing kits in colors like lime, pink, powder blue or yellow casing, pet food, plates, kitchen brushes, but it also sells other items like an electrical eraser, a smartphone stand, sake bottles, shampoo hats and almond and fish snacks — all for $1.50 each.

“I find this store very interesting and the goods are very good,” Cole said.

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